Hey there, California!

We have successfully made it to Cali!

And of course...look who we bumped into at the border:

 

I freakin' love these kids. I keep hoping to cross paths with them again...

The first day in California was a little rough. The weather couldn't seem to make up it's mind as to whether it wanted to be hot or cold...I fell off my bike (again...the count is now at 4...) because of my clips, and the day ended with a 1000 foot climb just south of Crescent City.

But the worst part of  it wasn't actually the climb. It was the fact that our campsite was still a couple hundred feet from the top of the mountain. We knew that it was a 2.2 mile road to get to the campsite. As we turned off 101, I briefly thought, "I really hope these aren't 2.2 DOWNHILL miles..."

After the first turn downhill, I started to get suspicious. As we started picking up speed and turning more corners, I was no longer suspicious.

I was MAD.

There really should have been a warning at the top of the hill: "Hikers and bikers, beware! This campsite is back at the bottom of the mountain you just climbed!!"

So the first day in California didn't really win me over.

But the second day? The second day was FREAKING AWESOME!

Zac and one of our campsite-mates had gone campsite-to-campsite the night before, asking anyone with large trucks if they would be at all willing to give us a ride up to 101 in the morning. And they actually found someone! An awesome skydiver named Kevin...who incidentally thinks we're crazy for biking all the miles we're biking. Yep, the person who voluntarily jumps out of planes think's *we've* nuts...

But he loaded our gear into the back of his truck and drove us up the hill. And Zac (okay, and me too) got to fulfill a childhood dream of riding in the back of a pickup truck!

 

And then the Redwood Adventures began.

I've always had a fascination with the Redwood forests. I'm pretty sure Ride a Purple Pelican, one of the books of poetry I read as a kid, had either a poem about or illustration of redwood trees. But you should have seen me a year ago, laid up on a couch at mum and papa's, sick with mono...and giddy as a kid on Christmas, having just realized this trip would take us through redwood national park!

On our lunch break, we noticed a sign for "Drive Thru Tree." We asked the waitress about it...turned out, across the street there was a living redwood tree that had been carved out after a fire, allowing people to drive through it. It was a total tourist trap, but since we weren't in a car, we got to bike through it for just a dollar apiece. And it was SO COOL. We nerded out about it for quite a while, and got a couple pics. This one's my absolute favorite:

There was another big hill to tackle on day 2 in Cali...but the descent made it worth every foot. Not because it was the most spectacular downhill...it was actually pretty moderate, with occasional plateaus and minor uphills that kept our speed down.

And I'm so glad for it. Because the redwood forest was breathtaking.

It was just the right combination of warm air and cool shade and...well, there are no words to properly describe redwood trees. They're just so...BIG. And these aren't even the giant Sequoias, either! These are their baby cousins! Admittedly, I might have been singing "Colors of the Wind" to myself...it was a very Pocahontas kind of environment. But we took our time, stopping at some particularly spectacularly large specimens, taking pictures, climbing into crevasses in the trees...

Yes, we're standing inside a tree

 

(this is taken from inside said tree, looking up)

 

And at the end of the day, our campsite had this view:

 

So, yeah. The redwood forest portion of California was pretty spectacular! Every bit as good as I had hoped...and there's still a 31 mile stretch through the Avenue of the Giants to look forward to!!

oofta

What an interesting few days it's been...
there's been...
-pea soup fog
-becoming one with my bike
- the first on-the-road fight
-and an awesome group of teens biking from Eugene to San Francisco!

The pea soup fog was outside of Charleston. We had spent our rest day there, mostly hiding in the tent in our long underwear and wool socks, trying to keep warm. It was mid-50s, gloomy and kind-of raining by the end of the night. And that semi rain and fog didn't lift when the sun came up!

As we started our first climb of the day, the air got progressively colder and the fog got progressively thicker. Also, I feel the need to mention that we were on Seven Devil's Road. By the time we climbed the 4th hill, I figured out why it's called Seven Devil's Road. And I didn't like it one bit! The fog had enveloped the world completely,for all we could tell. It was equal parts creepy and cool, with more than a little unnerving thrown in. Needless to say, I was a whole lot of glad to be away from the devils!

I had decided a few days ago that I wanted to get some clips for my bike. I've heard all about how they make for more efficient biking, wastes less energy, allows you to engage more muscle groups, that sort of thing. So I decided to become one with my bike. It didn't go so well. The test rides were just fine! But the next morning...I didn't even make it out of the campsite before I was staring at the sky and feeling 5years old again. But I kept on keeping on and things went much smoother...fir about 16 miles.

And then we encountered a hill.

I got mostly up the hill and just wanted to stop for a moment for a drink of water. I git my right foot out just fine. But in the process of getting my left foot out, I lost my balance. My bike pulled me down. And this time, my foot stayed caught in the clip, resulting in a leg twisted at a weird angle...And a Charlie horse. in my butt. Ever had a glute muscle Charlie horse? If you haven't, I hope you never do. It's a horrible feeling, especially when there's still 17 miles to go...

So thanks to the cramped butt muscle, I woke up cranky and frustrated this morning. My right clip was being sticky and I was having a hard time getting my foot free. Zac loosened it a bit, but it still wasn't cooperating. So when we were starting our 600ft climb and I once again crashed and burned, I absolutely lost it. I was frustrated beyond belief, sore, and once again (literally) lying on the side of the road crying because I couldn't get out of my clips.

And Zac was losing his patience too. We tend to feed off each others moods, for better or worse. He had spent half the day and night yesterday dealing with cranky frustrated Lindsay, and was running out of positivity. I'll spare you the details of the fight that ensued, but the end result was Zac going teacher mode on me when I needed caring boyfriend mode (though in his defense, I *was* kind of acting like one of his students...), and me glaring at him and telling him I was mad at him and was just gonna be mad at him for a while.

(But flying down a mountainside and being greeted at the bottom with a gorgeous ocean view is good for cooling down tempers!)

Around lunch time, we ran into a group of cyclists also headed to San Francisco! A group of eleven teens from all over, including Italy, going from Eugene to San Fran in 20 DAYS. At the peak of their trip, they'll be pulling 60 mile days! Color me impressed...we max out between 40 and 50! Turns out we were all headed to the same campsite...they pulled in just after I got a wonderfully warm shower. So after dinner I decided to track them down for a group picture, cause they're awesome and I wanted a picture to go with the story!

(If you're reading this - GOOD LUCK!! I hope we'll run into you again...you guys made a rough day better for me. Happy trails!)

Warm showers adventures

Once again, our Warm Showers hosts have proven to be AWESOME.

We decided to stop in Coos Bay after only 20 miles (I know, I know. ONLY 20 miles? What a show-off...but trust me, once you start pulling 30 or 40 mile days on a routine basis, 20 does feel like an "only"!). We had emailed Janet and Robert a couple days ago to see if we could stay with them. We were met with an enthusiastic "of course!" I found out when we got here that part of what won Janet over was this blog...but more specifically, reading one of my older entries about how "Our spirits were low. I cried. It happens." She and Robert had done some touring in the past where she cried because of the hills too...so
needless to say, she could relate!

And let me tell you, from the minute we got to their house until we went to bed, there was nothing but laughter. They have an English Mastiff (I LOVE when we stay with people who have big dogs!!!) and a bunch of cats...and a partial recumbent tandem bike. Wondering what that looks like? It looks like this:

We took it for a quick spin down the block...and it was an experience, let me tell you! It was so disconcerting to have zero control over the steering of a bicycle...every wobble felt so dramatic because I couldn't correct it, and I had no braking capabilities whatsoever. But it was a heck of a lot of fun, and Janet said she could hear our laughter/shrieks from down the block.

She also helped me complete a quest I was on for Papa...he wanted me to go on a distance runner's pilgramige in his place. Steve Prefontaine was an Olympic legend in the '70s; holding something like 7 distance records, or some absurd thing like that. He was killed in a car crash when he was in his 20s...anywho, he was buried in his hometown of Coos Bay. So I was on a mission to find his grave, and maybe even run a lap at his old highschool track.When I told Janet I was planning to bike out to the cemetary in the morning to try to find his grave, she offered me a ride out. Well, we had a heck of a time finding him! I ended up looking up a picture online so we knew what we were looking for...and we drove around the entire cemetary looking for it. At one point I got out of the car at the main office building to see if there were any signs or directions...and I hear Janet shriek from the car, "Oh my god I FOUND IT!!!" Turns out, it was right up the main road...we had driven right past it when we pulled in. We giggled probably more than was appropriate in a cemetary...but I like to think Steve would have appreciated it.

A greatly anticipated rest day is scheduled next...we'll bike to Charleston, about 9 miles away from Coos Bay...and then not do anything. Well, maybe bike into town to see a movie, but more likely than not we'll just hang out at camp and read and walk and enjoy not biking 30 or 40 miles!

No more birthday blues!

I think it might be safe to say that the Birthday Curse has been broken!

For those of you who don't know, I haven't had the greatest of luck when it comes to birthdays as of late. 23 - got robbed, first a couple days before, then a couple days after.
24 - lost my job two days before
25 - diagnosed with mono the DAY of my birthday.

Needless to say, I was a little hesitant to see what 26 held in store for me. Fall off a mountainside? Attacked by cougars? Broken bike? Anything was possible.

Instead...it held a whole lot of wonderful :)

We started the day with shivers...55 feels mighty chilly when you've got a day of biking on exposed roads ahead of you! But we tore along a stretch of Oregon's more forgiving flatlands and made really good time. I had decided somewhere along the road that what I wanted for my birthday was...toasted marshmallows. So when we stopped for lunch in Yachats, I grabbed a bag of marshmallows for later that night.

We pulled into camp early (before 3 even!) and had plenty of time to shower, lounge around in the sunlight and just hang out before our stomachs started demanding food. So we built ourselves a good campfire, roasted some sausage, actually heated up some baked beans (rather than just eating them cold out of the can...) and roasted the ENTIRE BAG of marshmallows. It was wonderful! Zac gave me a beautiful pair of earrings and life, as they say...was good.

The day after was a little rougher. We did a solid 42 miles (longest day since Pre-Portland) and it was our 5th day biking...also the most consecutive days on the road. There were some hefty hills and some...not necessarily hefty hills, but lonnnng slow climbs. I haven't quite decided which is harder - the short, steep climbs or the long, gradual inclines. I'm beginning to think the gradual hills are worse! At least with the steep inclines, I can anticipate an end to them! The slow climbs just feel like they take forever. But at least there were some pretty vistas to cheer us on!

But it made getting to camp that much nicer at the end of the day. Though I did encouter 'tour stomach' upon arrival. Zac had warned me about how much food my stomach would demand...and oh boy was it demanding food! I suppose my bright green sleeping bag is appropriate...I certainly feel like the Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Okay. This is what the trip is SUPPOSED to be like!! Fun, challenging - but not impossible - with time at the end of the day to relax! As far as I'm concerned, everything Pre-Portland was training. The trip ACTUALLY started July 17th when we left Portland.

Here's what I learned after we left Cape Lookout, the World's Most Perfect Campsite Ever:

1000 ft climbs suck. They're hard, they hurt, they're exhausting, they're no fun.

1000 ft descents? awesome. freaking. AWESOME!
It's a weird sensation to go flying down a mountainside. The wind rushing by essentially deafens you and brings (literal) tears to your eyes. But it's so much fun to watch your bike chew up the distance you fought so hard to climb, leaning into turns to keep your momentum and bracing your body to keep your balance.

Or if you're Zac, hitting potholes halfway down the mountain, having your waterbottle fly up to smack your butt and then fall off (the waterbottle, not the rider!) so you have to break and retrieve it!

And even more surprising was the moment, 100 feet from the bottom of the mountain, when we encountered this:

Sand dunes. On the side of a mountain.

(and an old record player, on a sand dune, on the side of a mountain..)

It was an incredible and unexpected find. It made me grateful that there was a slight incline in the mountain before the dunes. It forced us to slow down, which meant we were taking in the scenery when we got to to the dunes, rather than flying by them!

We stopped for lunch shortly after the Big Hill at the Pelican Pub and Brewery. I had tasty tasty fish'n'chips...and (brace yourselves!) a beer. Yep. I voluntarily had a pint with lunch...and LIKED IT. Strange things happen while you're on vacation...

We pulled into our campsite by 4.30...which was so nice. We could take our time, take hot showers before dinner, and still have plenty of daylight left to read and relax and chat with other bikers. Of course...we might have been more inclined to stay out and chat had it not been in the 50s! Sorry to hear you've been sweltering, Chicago, 'cause we've been shivering our tails off! Well, when not biking anyway.

The next day was (dare I say it??)...EASY.

We had only planned for 32 miles...taking a break after the 1000ft climb day, preparing for a day with a couple bigish hills. 

What I hadn't anticipated was how very easy flatlands felt after so many hills! The distance we planned to cover before we stopped for lunch...we finished in the first hour. We stopped to do a little whale watching...couldn't get any pictures of the whales, but the vista made us both wish we were pirates:

There was still a bit of a climb to tackle...but I don't think we'll ever have a completely flat day. Oh well! The path itself was beautiful:

Note the Tiny Zac for size comparison!

And the view from the top was well worth the climb!

(and we're kinda cute too!)

We got to Newport (5 miles from our campsite!) by lunchtime...which meant we could enjoy some drool-worthy seafood for lunch. We got a fried clam appetizer, Zac had calamari'n'chips, and I got clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. Nothing like biking 25 miles to make delicious food even tastier!

We decided to frequent Bike Newport (http://www.bikenewport.net/) where Zac got some gloves to cushion his hands (I'd done so towns ago! it really does make a difference) and I...did laundry?

This place was quite possibly the coolest bike shop I've encountered. Downstairs is your typical bike shop...but upstairs, they have a "day hostel" for cyclotourists! Shower, laundry, tv, computer, internet, chargers...everything you could hope for when you're on the road, ready to use! It's really quite neat...and it was nice to sit on a couch for a couple hours.

And it's REALLY nice to feel like we're on vacation.

Cheers!

Pictures! for funsies!

The Rockies from the plane

Typical contents of our food bag

You guys. The new Canadian money is TRANSPARENT. AND HAS BRAILLE. So cool!

View from our picnic spot on Stanley Park, Vancouver

Somewhere in Washington...it was pretty. And waaay high up.

Our campground in Port Townsend

Wildlife  count: a couple bald eagles, 4 deer, a couple fawns, some seals, a whale...

James, the great Dane of Cas and Ian, our awesome hosts in Bremerton

Need some rosemary?

book HEAVEN

The bug under the microscope

I have lost track of how many times I've told our story. There are the storytellings I expect - when we pull into a campground or host for the night - and the storytellings that don't surprise me - like when we ask for directions, bikes loaded down with food and panniers full and tents in tow. But there are also the times when I feel like a rather curious looking bug caught under a scientist's magnifying glass. My favorite such moment was when we were in Portland; Zac had run into a bakery to get some bread for our picnic in the rose garden. I was waiting outside with the bikes...no tent, only one pannier...nothing to really mark me as a touring cyclist. but lo and behold, a gentleman walks up to me and asks if we do tours on our bikes. I told him our story...turns out he recognized the Surly mark and knew them to be reputable touring bikes!

Anywho. I digress. Portland was absolutely wonderful. The food was wonderful...woodfire pizzas, strawberry honey balsamic vinegar with black pepper ice cream, vanilla yogurt pancakes Zac couldn't quite finish...We had very happy tastebuds and tummies! The city was a feast for the eyes, too. We were staying with a family in the Hawthorne neighborhood; when we had dinner in Colorado with Felix and his friend Cyn, she got in touch with her friend Dori in Portland who welcomed us with open arms. Sidenote: the hospitality we've encountered on this trip has been amazing and has restored my faith in people. Again, I digress. The houses in Portland are shorter than those of Chicago...two story bungalows reign over the taller apartments. But they're so pretty! And it's a very green city, literally and metaphorically. in addition to a recycling bin, each home also has a yard waste bin so that grass clippings and weeds can be composted!

 oh, and the major bridge into the city has a tally of how many bikes had crossed it so far...!

So we spent our days wandering the city, taking in the experimental rose garden (where all the roses were in bloom and the air smelled divine), having dinner with the one and only Erin Kouwe (a high school friend who also moved to Chicago and also happened to be in Portland!), enjoying a live blues band (where of course we showed off our dancing. but only a little, I swear!) and resting weary muscles.

 He is oh so dapper!

My favorite...looks like fire!

one of the places to lock your bike outside Powell's Bookstore

I can't say I was exactly excited to get back on the trail. Those damn hills just about broke my morale. But we reworked our route to create shorter, more leisurely days...And so far, so good! We took a bus from Portland to Tillamook in order to get back on the coast; the campsite we were planning to stay at was only about 15 miles away. This is mainly due to the 1000 foot climb we get to tackle first thing in the morning. eeeek! But we pulled into camp around 330...a solid 4 hours earlier than nights past! Which meant we had time to shower, hang out around the fire with other cyclists, go swimming...

Yep. You read that right. The water was nowhere near warm enough for such shenanigans, but that wasn't about to stop me from seizing the first opportunity I had to swim in the Pacific ocean! It took three tries to get in the water, it was so bone-chillingly, teeth-achingly, skin-burningly cold. But third time was the charm...I channeled all my years swimming at the Jersey shore and dove through a wave! Felt a lot better after that! And Zac has given me permission to tease him mercilessly here on my blog...for being waaaaaaaay too chicken to take the plunge! He made it out to his hips, but couldn't bring himself to come out any further. I sure enjoyed giving him ice cold hugs!

also, I decided those are not rocks. They are kissing dinosaurs!

So. trip take two. Pre-Portland was characterized by a whole lot of frustration, pain and tears. while I still anticipate more of those things to come, I think we've better set ourselves up for fun now :)

And hopefully we'll make it to San Fran three days before our train goes back to Chicago!

Revisiting our plans

Day 4 was...a mix.

We had a minor setback in the morning when the patch Zac had put on his front tire didn't take. Fortunately, there was a bike shop half a mile from where we were having breakfast. We got him a new tube and tire (the gal at the bike shop pulled glass out of his tire. He figured it was time for a new one!) and were on our way only about an hour behind schedule.

There was thankfully no headwind this time, so the morning was pretty smooth sailing. Well, as much as it could be since there were, you know, hills. I'm pleased to report that for the most part, the gorilla was downgraded to somewhere between a chimpanzee and an orangutan. (sorry for all the simian metaphors, but I like 'em. I hope you've gotten used to my rating scale!). The sun was shining, but the air was a cool 65/68, so we were comfortable! We pushed on for a few hours, determined to cover as much ground as possible before stopping for lunch.

The promise of a bed, a shower, and a Great Dane kept me going. Zac had emailed Cas and Ian, a couple in Bremerton who hosts Warm Showers bikers. They mentioned their Great Dane James in their profile...and come hell or high water, I was going to make it to Bremerton!

Unfortunately, the hills started catch up with me shortly before lunch. The orangutan was growing again, and I could tell Zac was getting frustrated. I don't blame him. It's no fun to have to stop at the top of almost every significant hill and wait for me to either walk up it, or watch me pedaling furiously in a low gear and barely covering any ground. Side note? I now know how hamsters in wheels feel...

But we made it to lunch, refueled and rested for a bit.

Our spirits were low. I cried. It happens. Even the alphabet backwards in FRENCH didn't do the trick.

But then we met some highschoolers selling cupcakes on a street corner as a fundraiser. We bought a couple cupcakes, struggled over one more hill...and then the landscape flattened out. We (well, I....) could move at a decent clip again. We covered miles in the time it took us to traverse one hill.

When we texted Cas to let her know we were about an hour away, she responded that she would have dinner ready for us when we got there! ...Have I mentioned Cas and Ian are AWESOME?

We made it to Bremerton around 7.30, tired, grubby, and hungry. But they fed us AMAZING homemade Indian food, I got to cuddle with a Great Dane, and we sat around swapping stories and chatting for a few hours.

Zac and I had also decided that day 5 was going to be a rest day. Earlier than anticipated, but our bodies, minds, and spirits needed it desperately. Our hosts were gracious enough to allow us to impose upon their hospitality for one more night, so we spent day 5 watching a movie, walking around downtown Bremerton, doing laundry, and most importantly - resting our aching muscles.

We're on the train to Portland now. We decided that it was more important to enjoy this trip than barrel through for the sake of doing exactly what we said we would. Portland is something we both had our hearts set on and there's no reason to skip it! So we're gonna hang out in, go dancing, explore the used bookstore that covers an entire city block and get back on the trail on the 17th!

(I also feel the need to comment on how wonderfully patient and caring Zac has been through all of this. He hates seeing me struggle and lets me set my pace, rest when I need to, reminds me to drink water, and manages to coax a smile out of me even through tears)

The Day the Alphabet Saved my Sanity

Day 3 (I've decided to go by day, rather than yesterday/today/Tuesday, mainly because I can't for the life of me keep anything straight any more!) was wicked. I don't mean that in a positive, "wicked! gnarly!" kind of way. I mean that in the, "wicked, vicious, downright evil" kind of way. Why?

Because we were fighting a headwind. Uphill. ALL. DAY. LONG.

That gorilla I mentioned in my last post? It had me in tears during lunch, frustrated because I'm so bad at this, afraid Zac would get sick of me holding him back, muscles in pain from so much forced work.

I didn't know how I was mentally going to make it through the afternoon, and this time we were on a deadline. There was a 6pm ferry we needed to catch in order to make it to our campsite.

At first, I started trying to conquer the hills by counting reps. 8 sets of 8, every time my left foot pedaled down. I told myself that once I finished "8, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" I could pause and wait for the burning to subside. That worked...for a couple hills. But it only worked for so long. Then I started singing an old warmup from highschool...the alphabet, sung in fifths (do re mi fa sol fa mi re do kind of thing). And then I decided to give my brain something to worry on instead of my legs.

I taught myself to sing the alphabet backwards.

And you know what?

We made it to the ferry at 5.30

Dear Chicago: why are you so flat?

Hello again friends! It's day two of our journey (when I'm writing this) and we're happily back in the US. We've logged (officially) 87 miles, but with various exploratory adventures on our first day in Vancouver and various... accidental adventures (okay, okay...misreading the map and getting friggin' lost!!), we probably have close to 110 miles under our belts already!

Backtracking a bit: Vancouver was awesome! We stayed with Devon and Karen, a fantastic pair of blues dancers. They were amazingly hospitable (fed us, gave us a comfy futon to sleep on, that sort of thing) and were a heck of a lot to hang out with! We even went to see a musical in an outdoor theatre! Legally Blonde, the musical. And you know what? I think even Zac enjoyed it ;-)

Our pre-trip day in Vancouver consisted mostly of getting to know these things called "hills." Thus the title of today's entry. I knew the hills would be a shock. I knew nothing in the flat Midwest that is Chicago would prepare us. But...Owww. Hills HURT. It doesn't help that we were bike-less and on lazy vacation for the week and a half leading up to the trip. Doesn't exactly lend itself to being prepared! But it was great to ride the city, hills notwithstanding. Their lakefront trail blows Chicago's out of the water! Not only is the mountain backdrop way more picturesque than our endless lake horizon, but there are two separate paved paths - one for bikers, and one for pedestrians. Brilliant!

Our first day on the trail went pretty darn well. There were some weird twists and turns on the map that got us lost a few times and my legs were horribly sore from the wicked Vancouver hills...but there were way more upsides than downsides! Our tasty picnic lunch - cheese, sausage, crackers and cranberries - and my favorite visitor who embodies the phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick!"

There was the giant suspension bridge that gave us a beautiful vantage point (though I confess I forgot to take a picture...). It was a long, steep climb, so I did have to give up and walk most of it. can't wait to see if the Golden Gate Bridge feels easier in a few weeks!

And the feeling of flopping down in the cool grass in the shade of a giant tree on a hot day...that's pretty heavenly.

We stayed with a warm showers host in White Rock that night. Warm showers is a hosting program specifically for people on bike tours. The host is only obligated to offer us a warm shower and a lawn to pitch our tent in, but sometimes they offer so much more! Patrick, our White Rock host, took us to the best fish'n'chips in town, took us on a tour down the promenade, showed us where the real Italian gelato could be found, and walked and talked with us all evening. It was absolutely wonderful...And after a long day biking in the hot sun and a full evening of good food, better conversation and seaside air, we passed out as soon as we hit the ground!

The White Rock for which the town was named...and our shadows!

Today was a little...rougher. Zac warned me that the second day would be harder. Well...he was right. For all my legs hurt yesterday, that was nothing compared to how they felt today. It was basically the feeling of doing three pushups too many...and that was on flatlands or gentle inclines. On proper hills? That was more the feeling of doing three pushups too many...while a gorilla is sitting on your back! Needless to say, today's overwhelming feeling was one of discomfort and pain.

But that's not to say today was all bad. We had some beautiful countryside to bike along. It reminded me a lot of upstate New York...which I suppose makes sense - Washington and upstate are both major apple producers...

One of our accidental adventures took us to a roadside stand selling the most delicious raspberries, so we ate incredibly well at lunch...

And did I mention this was our view?

 And our first (little) mountain took us through a rather majestic old-growth forest. Because of the hills (and therefore the gorilla on my back) I didn't think to get a picture...but even if I had, I don't think it would have done it justice.

Can't wait to see what adventures (accidental and intentional) tomorrow holds!